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ACaUISITIONOFCUBA 



SPEECH 



OF 






HON. ZACHAKIAH CHANDLER 

OF MICHIGAN, 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, FEBRUARY 17, 1859. 



The Senate having resumed the consideration of the bill 
making appropriation to facilitate the acquisition of Cuba 
by negotiation — 

Mr. CHANDLER said: 

Mr. President: T-his is a most extraordinary 

B reposition to be presented to the Congress of the 
r nited States, at this time. With a Treasury 
bankrupt, and the Government borrowing money 
to pay its daily expenses, and no efficient remedy 
proposed for that state of things; with your great 
national works in the Northwest going to decay, 
and no money to repair them; without harbors 
of refuge for your commerce, and no money to 
erect them; with a national debt of #70,000,000 
which is increasing in a time of profound peace at 
the rate of §,30,000,000 per annum, the Senate of 
the United States is startled by a proposition to 
borrow $30,000,000. And for what, sir? To pay 
just claims against this Government, which have 
been long deferred ? No, sir; you have no money 
for any such purpose as that. Is it to repair your 
national works on the northwestern lakes, to n - 
pair your harbors, to rebuild your light-houses ? 
No, sir; you have no money for that. Is it to build 
a railroad to the Pacific, connectingthe eastern and 
western slopes of this continent by bands of iron, 
and opening up the vast interior of the continent 
to settlement? No, sir; you say that is uneonsti- 
I 1 """! W1 l at ' then, do you propose to do with 
tins $30,000,000? Is it to purchase the Island of 
uba? No, sir; for you are already advised in 
idvance that Spain will not sell the island. More, 
«ir; you are advised in advance that she will take 
a proposition for its purchase as a national insult, 
) be rejected with scorn and contempt. The ac- 
tion of her Cortes and of her Government, on I 
jje reception of the President's message, proves 
this beyond all controversy. 

What, then, I ask again, do y»u propose to do 
With this $30,000,000? I ask any friend of the 
measure what he proposes to do with the money? 
ine question is absurd. There is no man, wo- 
man, or child, who does not know for what pur- 
pose this $30,000,000 is intended. It is a great 
«orrupuon fund for bribery, and for bribery only. 

5 7- 



It is a proposition worthy of its author; it is a 
proposition worthy of the writer of the Ostend 
manifesto; a proposition worthy of the brigand; 
worthy of James Buchanan; but it is unwortW 
ofthePresidentofthe United States; it is a propo- 
sition disgraceful to be made to the Con°ress of 
the United States. ° 

Again I ask, what do you propose to do with 
the money? Is it intended that this grand cor- 
ruption fund shall be used in the purchase of 
foreign ministers and ministers of State and high 
Spanish officials ? Is this what the friends of the 
measure would have us believe it to be? Such, 
possibly, a email portion of it may be intended 
for; but, in my estimation, that portion will be 
found to be infinitesimally small. There are 
other, and, in the estimation of some, more im- 
portant, objects to be attained by the use of this 
money. 

The Democratic party is damaged, badly dam- 
aged at the North. Its principles are gone, and 
even its occupation of public plunder is gone, for 
there is nothing left to steal; your Treasury is 
bankrupt, and there is no hope of replenishing it 
before the presidential contest of 18G0. In This 
emergency something must be done for the Dem- 
ocratic party, and here is the proposition to do it. 
A new issue is to be raised to call off the atten? 
tion of the country from past extravagant expend- 
itures and present bankruptcy. Cuba is to be 
the cry in the next presidential election, and 
$30,000,000 is to be the inducement to cry loud 
and long. This is a mere clap-trap broposition to 
go into the canvass of 1860; and the friends of this 
measure have no more idea of purchasing Cuba 
under it thaa I have of buying it on private ac- 
count. They are to go before the country upon 
this cry of Cuba, and upon it they hope to float 
into power again in I860. Vain, fallacious hope. 
Forty Cubas and $300,000,000 as a bribery and 
corruption fund, would not save the Democratic 
party from that annihilation which the Almighty 
has decreed. ' 

But, sir, Ictus examine this proposition in ita 
practical effects upon our constituency. I propose 



5 



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2 



to lake a practical view of it. I propose, before 
we go into a speculation of this kind, to ascertain 
whether it will pay. The computation which I 
am about to present, was made before Oregon 
was admitted, which has one member of the House 
of Representatives, and this fact would vary my 
figures a few dollars; but a few dollars only. Of 
this §30,000,000 bribery fund, each congressional 
district will pay f 127,118 64. TheSlate of Mich- 
igan, under the present representation, according 
to the census of 1850, having four members, will 
pay $508,474 56. But the population of Michigan 
has more than doubled since 1850, and she is now 
entitled, according to her population, to eight 
Representatives; and will, in 1860, be entitled to 
eight, at a ratio of one hundred and twenty-five" 
thousand people to a Representative; so that her 
presentproportion would be, according to a proper 
apportionment, $1,016,949 12, the interest upon 
which, at six per cent, per annum, would be 
$61,016 94. I name six per cent., because if you 
go into any such wild scheme as this, borrowing 
money to buy islands, you will find your national 
credit below par, according to the present ra 
interest; and 1 believe six per cent, is the lowest 
rate at which you can borrow money if you 
elude to go into this filibustering propositio 
the campaign of 1860. 1 say, then, you pro 
to mortgage my State of Michigan for $1,016,949, 
and to compel her people to pay an annual lax of 
$61,016. Before 1 vote this mortgage, and this 
perpetual annual tax upon tli< 
gan, I desire to consult my constituents; and 
I have consulted them, even if they should 
up their minds that this was a 
should tell them that upon that point 1 diffei 
them. 

But, sir, this is not all. You propose to author- 
ize the President to purchase the Island of Cuba 
for any price he m ue the S 

from Ohio, [Mr. Pugh,] has offered an 
ment placing a limit on I . hut it h 

been adopted, and if it were 1 do not supposi 
would have any effect on the What 

would President Buchanan i -50,000,000, 

more or less, to lish his darling schen 

Give him this $30,000,000 to start with and 
will pay two hundred, or two hundred and fifty, 
or any other number of millions that it may suit 
his whim to pay. I care not for your limit—he 
will not regard it. I will, however, take 
basis of my call ll aa i 

the sum which Spain will consent to accept for 
Cuba; to wit: $200,000,000. Two hundred mil- 
lion seems 10 be considered, mi all hands, as the 
minimum price. What the maximum may be, 
1 know not. I taki my calcula- 

tion the minimi. 10,000,000. If that be the 

amount, each ci onal district in the United 

States would pay $847,454, and il. 
i"an, as at present - tinder the census 

of 1850, would pay $3,389,816; but, as 1 have al- 
ready stated, her population lias more than doubled 
since the la s, and is rapidly increasing 

that her present proportion would be $6,779,' 
Upon this sum tl '1 perpetual interest would 

be $41)6,777 92. I call it perpetual, for no sane i 
lieves that, if this debt be created, it will i 
paid in the world. It is but the commencement 
of an irredeema I say, then, you pro, 

to mortgage the Stale of Michigan for $6,779,632, 



and to compel her to pay a perpetual annual tax of 
$406,777 92. 

Sir, before I vote for any such scheme as that, 
I want authority from home; and I advise the Sen- 
ator from Ohio to listen to his constituents before 
he votes for any such scheme. My word for it, 
if he has not heard from them, he will in 1861. 

Mr. PUGH. I will take care of my constitu- 
ents; let the Senator take care of his own. 

Mr. CHANDLER. The State of Ohio will 
have to pay, of this purchase money, $17,896,534, 
the perpetual annual tax of which, on that State, 
will be $1,073,791. Of the $30,000,000 appropria- 
ted by this bill, Ohio will pay $2,669,478, the 
annual interest on which, at six per cent., will be 
$160,168. The Senator says he will take care of 
that. 1 trust he will; and 1 can assure him that 
if he does not, the people of Ohio will. 

Now, let us admit for the sake of the argument, 
that this proposition is brought forward in good 
faith and will be successfully terminated, what 
does the State of Michigan gain, what does the 
State of Ohio gain, what do any of the north- 
s gain by the purchase of the Island 
uba? I know something of Cuba, something 
of its s i thing of its climate, something of 

its people, their manners and customs, some- 
heir religion, something of their crimes. 
nt a winter in the interior of the Island of 
a few years since, and can th( all 

from I knowledge. 1 differ in my views 

i from Louisiana, [Mr. 
Benjamin] My lal oh does not 

il with his theories. Much of the soil of the 
ungly productive; but it 
comparable to the prairies and bot- 
tom-lands of the Great West. You can go into 
ist any of your Territories and pal 

number of acres and you will have a more valu- 
in you can possibly make out of 
ha. You have hundreds of millions of acres 
of land to which you can extinguish the Indian 
title for a tnd obtain better lands and create 

r States than you will ever make out of 

' a - • ■„• 

The Island of Cuba contains nineteen million 

three hundred and fifty thousand acres, and you 

p ro , pay for it $200,000,000; or in other 

words, you propose to pay for the Island ol Cuba 

more than ten dollars an acre for (very acre of 

land on it, and then you do not acquire an acre. 

You are selling infinitely better lands, and have 

millions upon' millions of them, for $1 25; and 

yet you propose to tax the people of the United 

States to pay ten dollars an acre for land that you 

do not get when you pay the money. 

1 notice by the report of the honorable Senator 
from Louisiana, [Mr. Slidell,] that Cuba con- 
tains, at this time, a population of one mil ion 
nine thousand and sixty inhabitants, including 
negroes, old men, and small children. You pro- 
pose to pay nearly two hundred dollo ad for 
every man, woman, child, and negro on the island, 
and then you do not own one of ilieni You pro- 
pose topay$200,000j000— for what? Forthe right 
to govern one million of the refuse of the earth. 
You propose to pay $200,000,000 to bring in a 
population that you would reject With scorn if 
they were now to apply for admission into the 
Union, free of all expense. 

Do you think that pioposition will pay i Uo 



/7? 



you think it will commend itself to the people of 
the Northwest? Do you think it will commend 
itself to the people of this Union ? What do you 
get after you pay your $200,000,000? You ac- 
quire the right to build fortifications; to send an 
army to Cuba; to govern i t ; to create a navy to pro- 
tect it; to expend through all time, from twenty- 
live to a hundred millions per annum, to take care 
of it. That is all you get. Do you think it will 
pav? But, as I said before, I know something 
of the people of this island, and something of their 
manners and customs. 

The white population consistschiefly of Creoles, 
or native-born Cubans. Of the slave population 
I should think a large majority are native-born 
Africans. The honorable Senator from Louis- 
iana [Mr. Benjamin] spoke the other day of the 
great mortality among the slaves of Cuba. If he 
meant to apply his remarks on that point to the 
Creole slaves, he made a vast mistake; for I never 
in my life saw a more healthy set of persons than 
the creole slaves of Cuba. They are not half so 
hard worked, they are better fed, they live longer 
than the slaves of Louisiana; and they are not 
as cruelly treated. This remark was made to me 
over and over again, " Give me anything but a 
Yankee master." They do not want an Amer- 
ican master. He is energetic, he drives, he works 
his negroes; but the Creoles are so utterly indo- 
lent themselves, that they allow their negroes to 
do pretty much what they please. If the Senator 
meant his remark to apply to the Africans, it 
was, perhaps correct. At the time 1 was upon 
the island, the mortality of the native Africans 
was estimated thus: one fifth of all shipped from 
the coast of Africa died upon the passage; one 
fifth more committed suicide within the first year 
after they were landed on the island; one fifth 
more died the first year in the process of accli- 
mation, because they were unaccustomed to toil, 
unaccustomed to that mode of living. Conse- 
quently, three fifths of the entire exportation from 
the coast of Africa were lost in one year from the 
date of theirexportation. In regard to the remain- 
ing two fifths, however, after becoming acclima- 
ted, they live as long as Creole negroes. It will 
be seen that three fifths being destroyed the first 
year, in order to get an average of any length of 
time, you must rate a long life to the rest, unless 
you shorten the duration, perhaps to the time the 
Senator mentioned; but the lives of the creole 
negroes are as long as those of any other people 
in the world. 

Now, as to the white population: they are ig- 
norant, vicious, and priest-ridden. Prior to the 
administration of General Tacon, there was not 
a crime on the calendar which had not its fixed 
value in the Island of Cuba. I had at one time 
the tarifFof crime there, butat the present moment 
I only recollect a single item. The price of assas- 
sination was two ounces of gold, or thirty-four 
dollars a head ! You could have any man assas- 
sinated for thirty-four dollars before the adminis- 
tration of Tacon; and I was informed by many 
old Cubans you could scarcely walk out in the 
streets of Havana in the morning without finding- 
one or more dead bodies, the result of the last 
night'sassassinations and robberies. My own ex- 
perience is, that thegibbetwas a common sight — 
the gibbet, with the human skull rattling in the 
wind , at the corner of four roads, or at some place 



where a crime had been committed and the mur- 
derer met his fate. 

On the accession of Tacon to office, he in- 
creased the army to twenty thousand men, and 
did establish , as the honorable Senator from Lou- 
isiana [Mr. Benjamin] said, an absolute military 
despotism, which exists there to this day. But it 
was not as the Senator said to prevent insurrec- 
tion; it was to prevent crime, and that only; and 
if that military despotism had not been estab- 
lished, and had not been ruled with an iron hand, 
Cuba would be to-day what-jt was before the ad- 
ministration of Tacon. As I said before, the peo- 
ple are ignorant and vicious. They will not labor, 
and they will resort to any shifts of crime to ob- 
tain subsistence. Bribery is universal, from the 
Governor General, who receives two ounces of 
gold per head forevery slave landed on the island. 
Leta slave trader land a single negro without 
paying his two ounces of gold, that negro will be 
wrested from him within three days. Two ounces 
of gold per head is the regular established bribe 
for every slave landed on the Island of Cuba, and 
it is done as publicly as almost any other trans- 
action there. I went into the barracoons at Ha- 
vana, and saw eleven hundred slaves within three 
days from the time of their landing there from 
the coast of Africa. They were landed within 
ten miles of the Moro Castle, and marched di- 
rectly up to Havana, and placed in the barracoons 
for sale publicly, under the very eye of the Cap- 
tain General. Everybody was talking about it, 
and the ship that brought them over, lay as qui- 
etly in the harbor of Havana as any merchant 
ship. If you had seen, as I did, those eleven 
hundred miserable wretches, you would not be 
surprised at the mortality among them. The 
laws of Spain are to-day as severe against the 
slave trade as those of the United States; never- 
theless, slaves are continually imported there, 
and it is done because the Captain General is 
bribed. It is a well known fact, that every Cap- 
tain General of Cuba acquires an immense for- 
tune in two or three years, and it is from the 
slave trade and that alone. From the judge on 
the bench, from the priest in the pulpit, to the 
lowest tide-waiter, bribery is the rule, and there 
are no exceptions. You cannot remove the dead 
body of your friend from the Island of Cuba with- 
out bribing the priest, bribing the captain of the 
Partero, bribing the judge, and bribing the cus- 
tom-house officer, through whose hand it passes. 
I know that, because I have had to pay the bribes. 
Is not this a beautiful population to bring into 
the Union as a State — a beautiful population to 
I take rank with the old States of this Union? But, 
sir, that is not all. The Catholic religion rules 
I supreme in the Island of Cuba; no other religion 
j is tolerated. Even the rites of a Christian burial 
I are denied to a Protestant upon that island. The 
I people are superstitious and vicious; and they are 
bigots as well. They are devout Catholics. The 
j Catholic Church is true to Spain; the Catholic 
I Church is true to despotism; and the people 
, there, to a man, are true to the Church. If the 
honorable Senator from Louisiana has seen hun- 
dreds, or if he has seen one hundred, Cubans 
who were panting for liberty, as he asserts, he 
has seen every one that that island produced. 
There are a few creole Cubans, who have been 
educated in the United States, that are intelligent, 



that care nothing about their church, who are 
anxious to get their hands into the Treasury. 
They are anxious for plunder; they are anxious 
for positions where they can receive bribes. True 
patriotism does not exist on the Island of Cuba. 
They love the very chains that bind them. They 
Jove their church; they love this very military 
despotism of which complaint is made. The 
men of whom the Senator from Louisiana speaks, 
are men the majority of whom have been ban- 
ished from the island. Where was the declara- 
tion of independence which he brought before us 
written.' Who wrote it? Where was it adopted ? 
In my opinion, it was adopted in some tavern in 
.New Orleans. The people of Cuba never adopted 
a declaration of independence. What was the 
fate of the gallant Crittenden when he went to 
Cuba to help to rescue them from oppression? 
What became of that young man and the fifty 
associates who were with him, when they went 
there with arms in their hands prepared to sh 
their blood for the redemption of the Island of 
Cuba? Where, then, were the patriots who were 
thirsting for freedom? If there was one on the 
island, he kept himself pretty well out of sight; 
and that gallant young man, ten minutes b 
he Buffered death, wrote a letter to a friend in the 
United States, saying: " I did not come In 
plunder; I came here in good faith to aid these 
people in acquiring their freedom; I sup; 
they were thirsting for liberty; but I have 
deceived. My time has come." In a; 
be added: " I will die like a man." 

Where were the liberty-thirsting Cubans then, 
when as gallant a soul as ever lived on i 
this earth went to his la? 
sympathized with " gallant, suffering" Cu 
Sir, the gallantry is not there. Th 
thing as a love of liberty there. Do you 
these people in your Union? Arc you prepared 
to pay $200,000,000 to bring such a set of crim- 
inals into tins Union? Do you propos 
an army of twenty thousand men in a climate 
where they will be decimated < ir, to gov- 

ern that island? That is what Spain has to do, 
and that is what yon will have to do if you 
to keep the people from cutting each ol 
ihroats. You will have to keep up a navy there 
to protect your possession, if you get it. 
must spend from fifteen to twenty million il 
a year to govern the island; and in addition to 
that, you propose to place a perpetual annual tax 
of $12,000,000 upon the of the l 

Slates lor the purchase. I ask Senators wli 
they consider that a game that will pay ? 

Suppose you get the island: what will you do 
with il? Your people cannot live their. The im- 
pression has gone abroad that in the interior of 
the Island of Cuba the climate is cool and healthy ; 
but such is not the fact. Tropical disea.-< 
ways rage there at certain seasons of the 
ami the foreign population is usually decimated 
every year. You cannot even sleep on a mat- 
tress, during the winter, on that island. The 
heat is so intense that you are obliged to forego 
the luxury of a mattress, and sleep in a hammock 
or upon canvas. Besides, there are certain other 
luxuries that I wish to call to the attention of 
northern men who may propose to go there. You 
are compelled to sleep under mosquito bars all 
the year round; and if you do not find scorpions 



in your boots in the morning, you will be more 
fortunate than I was. Lizards run about in every 
direction; worms annoy youatevery turn. This 
is a beautiful place to emigrate to ! And yet you 
propose to pay $200,000,000 for the island. In 
my opinion, it is not a paying investment. 

But, sir, as I said before, this bill is not to buy 
the Island of Cuba, for you are advised in ad- 
vance that you cannot get it. This is a mere elec- 
tioneering scheme for 1860. It is to be one of the 
planks in the Democratic platform in 1860; and I 
propose very briefly to review a certain other 
plank which you have in that platform, as it has 
only two left — this one is not yet in. You have 
destroyed all your old platforms; they are utterly 
annihilated. Even the Cincinnati platform of ten- 
der years has ceased to be; and I am not sur- 
prised that that platform has been destroyed. 
There never was a sound plank in it. It said that 
everything was left " perfectly free, subject to the 
Constitution of the United Stales;" but the know- 
ing ones in that convention were perfectly aware 
at that time that the Constitution of the United 
s was virtually subverted by a decision which 
the Supreme Court dared not then make, and 
whose final enunciation depended upon the result 
of that election. If President Buchanan had not 
been elected, the Dred Scott decision would not 
have been made. I propose now to spend a very 
in examining this last new platform of 
the Democratic party. The Supreme C of the 
<1 States was merciful in its work of destruc- 
tion. The Cincinnati platform was built precii 
as boys build cob-houses — to see who could first 
knock them down; and the missile which the Su- 
■ Court threw at the Cincinnati platform, 
which destroyed it, and which will virtually over- 
turn tl titution of the United States when it 
be law; that very missile was itsel fa Dem- 
ocratic platform, which tie iders 
made great haste to mount; and at the Nortli ihey 
found it large enough. There was but one plant 
to it, but it would hold all the Demi party 
. They had become infinitesimally small and 
few in number before that last new platform, and 
growing beautifully less day by day. 

I insist that the Dred Scott decision — for it is 
ss for me to say that it is to that I allude — 
is the only Democratic platform that now exists; 
and if any man throughout this broad land, who 
holds a Government office of any value whatever, 
doubts it, let him try the experiment. Let him 
say that lie does not consider the Dred Scott de- 
cision the Democratic platform, does not consider 
it binding on him, and, my word for it, he will be 
shorter by a head within three days after the an- 
nunciation. Sir, it is the Democratic platform; it 
is the party test. Any man who does not swear 
nice to the Dred Scott decision is no Dem- 
ocrat. I hold in my hand an exposition of that 
decision, from a Democratic newspaper published 
in the city of Washington, which I believe is uni- 
versally admitted to be good Democratic author- 
ity. It is more than that; the newspaper to which 
I allude distills the pure- essence, tlie very essen- 
tial oil of Democracy. I allude to the Union 
newspaper of this city, some of whose articles are 
understood to be written by the President of the 
United States and to be supervised by his Cabi- 
net, and to send forth the perfectly pure Demo- 
cratic doctrine. I believe that when this pure 



Democratic doctrine is seen, it will be offensive 
not only to the people of the North, but of the 
South likewise. But, sir, to the article. In the 
Union of November 17, 1857, appeared a long ar- 
ticle, prepared with great care, evidently intended 
as a lasting exposition of the position of the Dem- 
ocratic party. It says: 

"Slaves were recognized as property in the British col- 
onics Dt' North America, by the Government of Great Rrit- 
ain, l»v the colonial laws, and by the Constitution of the 
United Stales. Under these sanctions, vested rights have 
teemed to the amount ol some $1,601) ,000,000. Itis, there- 
fore, the duty ol' Congress and the State Legislatures to 
protect that property. 

" The Constitution declares that ' the citizens of each State 
ehall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of cit- 
izens in the several States.' Every citizen of one State 
comins into another State, has, therefore, a right to the pro- 
tection of his person, and that properly which is recognized 
M'urh by the Constitution of the United States; any law 
of a Siate to the contrary, notwithstanding. So far from 
any State having a right to deprive him of this property, it 
ig its bounded duty to protect him in its possession. 

" If these views are correct, (and we believe it would be 
difficult to invalidate them.) it follows that all State laws, 
whether organic or otherwise, which prohibit a citizen of 
one State from settling in another, and bringing his slave 
property wild him, and most especially declaring it forfeited, 
arc direct violations of the original intention of a govern- 
ment which, as before stated, is the protection of person 
and property, and of the Constitution of the United States, 

j which recognizes property in slaves, and declares that ' the 
Citizens of each Slate shall be entitled to all the privileges 

i and immunities of citizens in the several States," among the 

miost essential of which is the protection of persons and 

i property. 

" What is recognized as property by the Constitution of 
the United States, by a provision which applies equally to 

i all the Stares, has an inalienable right to be protected' in 

tall the States." 

There you see the doctrine announced, that the 
'States are under obligation to protect slave prop- 
erty, although it may be brought within their 
[limits with the intention of keeping it there. The 
' free States are compelled to protect slave property 
, within their limits, although it maybe brought 
! there for the purpose of remaining, under the doc- 
i trine here laid down; and if the Dred Scott de- 
I cision be law, or if it be hereafter regarded as a 
law, this reasoning is correct. If the Constitu- 
tion of the United States carries slave property 
one inch beyond the jurisdiction of the State lav. r 
creating or regulating it, it carries it everywhere; 
j for no person can " be deprived of life, liberty, or 
I property, without due process of law;" but we 
deny, in loto, that the Constitution of the United 
I States does recognize or regulate or acknowledge 
property in slaves. 

In this connection, let me allude to a remark of 
| the Senator from Georgia, [Mr. Iverson.] Some 
jdays ago he told us what lie would deem a suffi- 
I cient cause for a dissolution of this Union. That 
\ I may not misrepresent him, I will read exactly 
what he said. He declared: 

" Sir, it is not so difficult a matter to dissolve this Union 
as many believe. Let the Republican party of the North 
obtain possession of the Government, and pass a VVilmot 
proviso; or abolish slavery in the District of Columbia ; or 
repeal the fugitive slave law ; or reform the Supreme Court, 
and annul the Ured Scott decision ; or do any other act in- 
fringing upon the rights, impairing the equality, or wound- 
ing the honor of the slave States; or let them electaPresi- 
dent upon the avowed declaration and principle that freedom 
and slavery cannot exist together in the Union, and that one 
or the other must give way, and be sacrificed to the other, 
and the Union would be dissolved in six mouths." 



Now, sir, I propose to do two or three things, 
which the honorable Senator from Georgia de- 
clares are good and sufficient reasons for dissolv- 



ing this Union. I do not speak for the Republi- 
can party; I speak for myself. I say I do propose 
the reorganization of the Supreme Court. The 
present organization of that court is monstrous. 
Judge McLean has as many causes to try in his 
circuitas have all the five slaveholding judges put 
together. When he was appointed justice of that 
circuit, it was a howling wilderness; now there are 
a thousand millions of commerce within it. Then 
v he could hold a court in every State in his circuit; 
now he cannot reach some of those States once in 
five years. I propose to reorganize that court, so 
as to make it conform to the business of the coun- 
try. I propose that its judges shall be located 
so that they can at least visit gyery State in the 
district once or twice a year; and in order to do 
that, the court must be reorganized. Three fourths 
of the entire business of the courts of the United 
States is at the North, where you have four judges 
of the Supreme Court. One fourth of it is at the 
South, where you have five. I propose to reor- 
ganize that court; and, if the Senator from Geor- 
gia were in his seat, I would ask him how he pro- 
poses to dissolve the Union after it is done? I ask 
any Senator, who is blustering in the Senate or 
elsewhere about dissolving this Union, how he is 
going to do it? 

We propose to do more; we mean to elect a 
President who entertains the same views; and if 
that be a just cause for dissolving this Union, 
again I ask, how are you going to do it? I want 
any man on this floor to tell me how he is going 
to dissolve this Union, because we, the people of 
the United States, see fit to exercise our constitu- 
tional privilege. We mean to annul the Dred 
Scott decision — no, sir, I take that back; it is no 
decision. We do not think it is a decision at all. 
The only point decided in that case was, that ne- 
groes cannot come into court. That we accept; 
that we cannot annul; that is decided; but the 
stump speeches of Chief Justice Taney, and the 
other judges, were mere fanfaronade, meaning 
nothing. It was not a decision of the court; and 
if we elect our President in 1860, as ive are going 
to do, that decision will never be made. I do not 
say that that decision would not now be made. I 
think if a case were before the court now, it would 
make the Dred Scott decision legal; but the Su- 
preme Court has always sided with the Admin- 
istration in power. What did General Jackson 
do when the Supreme Court declared the United 
States Bank constitutional ? Did he bow in de- 
ference to the opinions of the Supreme Court ? 
No, sir; he scorned the opinion of the Supreme 
Court, and said that he would construe the Con- 
stitution for himself; that he was sworn to do it. 
I, sir, shall do the same thing. I have sworn to 
support the Constitution of the United States, and 
1 have sworn to support it as the fathers made it, 
and not as the Supreme Court has altered it, and 
I never will swear allegiance to that. But I am 
not quite through with the Union article. It says 
further: 

"The protection of property being next to that of per- 
son, the most important object of all good government, and 
property in slaves being recognized by the Constitution of 
the United States, as well as originally by all the old thir- 
teen States, we have never doubted that the emancipation 
of slaves in those States where it previously existed, by an 
arbitrary act of the Legislature, was a gross violation of the 
rights of property." 

There you have it declared that abolition of 



6 



t slavery in seven of the old thirteen States was un- 
a constitutional, and, according to the Dred Scott 
J decision, it was. I ask any man of common 
f sense — I will not ask a lawyer; 1 am no lawyer 
f myself— but 1 ask any man of common sense, if 
1 he believes that the old thirteen States, seven of 
1 which intended lo abolish slavery within a very 
<! few years, would have adopted a Constitution 
*i which prohibited them from doing the very act 
? which they contemplateddoing instanter ? I ask 
*< any man if he believes for a single moment that the 
t Representatives of those seven States that in tended 
y immediately to abolish slavery within their bor- 
I ders, would ever have assented to a Constitution 
(■ which prohibited them from doing the very act 
which they proposed to do? No, sir, the prop- 
osition is absurd; and the judges of the Supreme 
Court themselves did not believe it when they ut- 
tered it. No man of common sense can believe it. 
It is not so. 

But, sir, monstrous as is this proposition, mon- 
strous as is the article which I have read, if the 
Dred Scott decision be law it is all true; and it is 
• a mere question of time when every State of this 
i Union will become a slave State. If the honor- 
a able Senator from Louisiana, or any other man, 
h should see fit to take a thousand negroes into the 
1 State of Michigan after that decision shall have 
J become the law, I defy any power short of a rev- 
olution in this Government to prevent him, or take 
them from him. Rut, sir, it is not law; it is not 
common sense; yet this Dred Scott d is the 

only platform of the Democratic party nt the pres- 
ent time — the only issue before the country. I 
beg pardon; there is another issue, not yet per- 
fected, and that is this $30,000,000 bribery and 
corruption fund. That is to lie another plank in 
the Democratic platform. These two planks, the 
Dred Scott decision and Cuba, are to be the plat- 
form that is to float the party into power if it. 
ever arrives there; the Dred Scott decision 
the $,30,000,000 loan, with, perhaps, the hi 
able Senator from Virginia [Mr. Hdnter] astride 
of them; and with that platform and that candi- 
date, the Democratic parly will march to certain 
defeat. 

But, sir, as this measure at the present time is 
a financial question, I propose very briefly to al- 
lude to the financial condition of'the country. I 
look upon this as the practical method of judging 
of its merits. I hold in my hand a letter written 
by a very distinguished man, at present ci 
with this Government, dated March 1, 1852, and 
addressed to a committee of gentlemen of Balti- 
' more. It is signed " James Buchanan." It says: 

"We must inscribe upon our banners, a sound regard 

for i lie reserved rights of tiie Slates, o strict construction nt 

the Uoiisliluiion, a denial to all powers not 

J clearly gianted by that instrument, and a rigid economy in 

. public expenditures. 

••These expenditures have now reached the enormous 
cum el '.*.")". nun, uun per annum, and unless arrested in ile-ir 

i advance by the strong arm of the De cracy nt" the eoun- 

, try, may, in the course of a few years, reach $100,OOJ,uuu." 

Well, sir, " the strong arm of the Democracy" 
hns been managing our affairs ever since. The 
President of the United States was then mistaken 
a few millionsasto the expenditures; for the entire 
expenditures of 1852, including payment of the 
public debt, was only $44,481,447; but let him 
nave the advantage of his own figures. The 
strong arm of the Democracy has had charge of 



this Government from that lime to the present, 
and we have already reached the point that he 
prophesied we might reach in a few years — 
£100 ,000,000 of expenditure. It was demons) rated 
to my entire satisfaction, and, I believe, to the 
satisfaction of the Senate, by the honorable Sen- 
ator from Kentucky, [Mr. CiuTTENDt:\-,]theother 
day, that #100,000,000 would not jiay the ex- 
penses of Government for this year. I propose 
a change; I propose that we try some other hand 
at economizing the expenses of this Government. 
But let me go on with the letter. Its writer says 
further: 

" The appropriation of money to accomplish ereat na- 
tional objects, sanctioned by the Constitution, ought to be 
on a scale commensurate with our power and re*<inrc«« a* 
a nation ; but iis expenditure ought to be i i ted under . 

the guidance of enlightened economy and strict responsi- 1 
bility. I am convinced that our expenses might he consid- 
erably reduced, below the present standard, not only with- 
out detriment, but with positive advantage both to the 
Government and the people." 

If the expenditures could then be reduced below 
£50,000,000 with advantage 10 the Government 
and tli- , whatcan lie done now ? Is thereany 

reason why our expenditures should be greater 
now than they were in 1852? There is no reason 
i that money may be used for purposes of 
corruption; and I propose to examine into some 
of these corruptions now and here. This letter 
says further: 

"An and lavish expenditure of public m mi 

though in ii lis nothing when com- 

pared wild I H ii|ron the 

ter of our free institution ncy to- 

great political evil of the present 
;ht to be firmly resisted." 

Sir, I propose to resist it with all the firmness 
'iven me. Now, let u little into 

tpenditures of this Government. I hold in 
my hand an official document of the Senate, 
printed at the Inst session, giving th sand 

of the Government from its form- 
ation to 1857; and I desire to present some facts 
which are shown by this document; and to be as 
brief as possible, I will take it by decades, and I 
will commence with the military s >f the 

country. In 1790, the whole exp n f the 

Army amounted, in round numbers, to £917,000; 
in 1800, £3,272,000; in 1810, £3,107,920; in 
£4,923,027; in 1830, £5,082,843; in 1840, 
$6,504,830; in 1850, £6,838,919; and in 1857, 
£18,614,594. This last sum does not include all 

Kpenditures of the Army for 1857; for Sena- 
tors will recollect that one of the first bills we 
passed at the last session was a bill making an 
appropriation of £5,700,000 for deficiencies in the 
expenses of the Army. Thus it will be seen that 
the Army expenses alone, from 1850 to 1857, al- 
most quadrupled, and this in a time of profound 
peace. Does any Senator on this floor believe 
i here was any necessity for such an enormous 
increase in the expenditures for the Army ? Does 
any man believe that a prudent administration of 
the Government would not cut down the Army 
expenditures at least one half? Sir, ihe extrava- 
gance is enormous and outrageous; and it requires 
something more than the strong hand of the Dem- 
ocratic party to rectify the evil. We will take it 
m the strong hand of Republicanism, and then 
we will remedy it. 

But, sir, let us look at the Navy. In 1800, 
the expenditures for the Navy were £3,042,352; 



i 



in 1810, $1 ,870,274; in 1820, $2,709,24.*; , in 
1830, $3,496,643; in 1840, §7,562,752; in 1850, 
§9,571,646; in 1857, $14,117,434. Have we any 
more ships, or any more guns, or any more effi- 
cient force, to-day, than we had in 1850? 1 am 
informed that we have not. On the contrary, it 
is said, I know not with how much truth, that 
our Navy is hardly as efficient as it was at that 
time At any rate, we have had no war, no ex- 
traordinary demand for excessive naval expendi- 
tures, and yet they have been reaching up until 
thev are §14,000,000. .... .. 

There is one other account here, to which 1 wish 
to call the attention of the Senate. It is headed 
" miscellaneous expenditures." I do not know- 
exactly what constitute the miscellaneous expend- 
itures of this Government, but I notice a most 
extraordinary increase in them of late. I take it 
for granted that what cannot be charged anywhere 
to anything, goes down as miscellaneous. The 
miscellaneous expenditures of this Government 
in 1800 amounted to $312,823; in 1810, $650,514; 
in 1820, 51,386,448; in 1830, $1,436,201; in 1640, 
$3,243,649; in 1849, $3,595,853; and in 1857, 
$20,442,860. I should like to know how these 
miscellaneous expenditures have swollen so enor- 
mously. There is another remarkable fact con- 
• nected with the great increase of the miscellaneous 
expenditures of the Government. 1 notice that 
when any very great outrage is about to be per- 
petrated, the miscellaneous expenditures increase 
enormously. In 1849 they were $3,595,853; and 
they swelled in 1850. when the fugitive slave bill 
was passed, to $7,122,970. Again, when the Mis- 
souri compromise was repealed, I notice they 
reached the enormous amount of $19,899,000; 
and a goodly portion of this great increase may 
be legitimately charged to the negroes. That in- 
stitution has been a very expensive one to this 
Government. It has co3t, in my estimation, all 
it is worth. When any great outrage was to be 
perpetrated, the expenditures of all branches of 
this Government have swollen enormously. So 
when the Lecompton constitution came here to 
be passed last winter. We have not got the ac- 
count yet, but you will find an enormous expend- 
iture in several of the Departments of this Gov- 
ernment, which, the less said about, the better the 
parties interested will be satisfied. 

As I said the other day, we have had a bill 
under consideration in the Committee on Com- 
merce to reduce the expenditures for the collec- 
tion of the revenue over $600,000 a year, and we 
have not commenced the work of reform even at 
that. We have lopped off by that bill a thousand 
useless employes of the Government, scattered 
over the United States; but we have not probed 
the wound to the bottom. As I have said, that 
bill, if it becomes a law, will save $600,000 a year. 
I propose, for a moment, to call attention to some 
of the outrageous expenditures connected with 
that Department. In the Passamaquoddy district, 
at Eastport, Maine, the whole amount of revenue 
collected for tlje year ending June 30, 1857, was 
$14,285 33, and the expense of collecting it was 
$22,357 71; and nineteen men were employed to 
collect $14,000 of revenue. In Frenchman's bay 
district, at Ellsworth, they collected $954 96, and 
the expenses were $5,032 09; and it took ten men 
to collect the $954. At Wiscassett, in Maine, you 
collected $130 93; and it cost $7,359 09, and took 



eight men to collect $130. These are samples. 
At Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the revenue 
collected was $5,530 54; the expense of collection 
was $10,984 49, and twenty-one men were em- 
ployed to make the collection. At Burlington, 
Vermont, the revenue was $8,581 70; the expense 
of collecting was $16,285 47, and thirl y-three men 
were employed to collect it. At Marblehead, 
Massachusetts, the revenue was $250 85; the ex- 
pense of collecting it $2,228 97, and nine men 
were employed to collect it. At Plymouth, in 
Massachusetts, the revenue collected was $395 12; 
the expense of collection was $3,216 04, and six 
men were employed to make the collection. At 
Barnstable, Massachusetts, the revenue collected, 
was $1 ,46275: the expense of collection $11,953,20, 
and nineteen men were employed to make the col- 
lection. At Nantucket, Massachusetts, the rev- 
en ue collected was $95 81; the expense of collecting 
it was $2,320 73, and three men were employed 
in the collection. At New London, in Connec- 
ticut, the revenue collected was $3,223 89; the 
cost of collecting it was $29,789 48, and seven 
men were employed in its collection. At Oswego, 
in New York, the revenue collected was $6,149 09; 
the cost of collecting it $18,214 58, and twenty- 
three men were employed in its collection. At 
Niagara, New York, the revenue collected was 
$8,284 85; the cost of collecting it $12,296 92, and 
nineteen men were employed in its collection. At 
Buffalo, New York, the revenue collected was 
$10,140 53; the cost of collecting it was $16,896 51, 
and twenty men were employed in its collection. 
At Cape Vincent, New York, the revenue col- 
lected was $2,098 12; the cost of collecting it 
$7,138 87, and thirteen men were employed in Us 
collection. 1 might continue the citations; but 
these will suffice. 

True, we shall have lopped off these things by 
that bill, if it shall become a law; but I hold that 
these extravagant expenditures of the Govern- 
ment ought never to have been commenced'; and 
I hold this Administration responsible for the 
enormous abuses that have crept into the collec- 
tion of the revenue. The head of the Department 
had no right, under the law, to appoint inspect- 
ors; but he could appoint clerks and porters and 
boatmen, and a thousand other officers, and pay 
them the highest salary at his discretion; and 
under the abuse of that power these enormous ex- 
penditures have sprung up. You may go into any 
of the Departments of this Government, and you 
will find the same kind of abuse existing. Go into 
any bureau in this city, and you will find abuses. 
It requires an honest Administration of this Gov- 
ernment; it requires a man who dares to take 
the responsibility of doing right; and then you 
may reduce your expenditures, as Mr. Buchanan 
suggested in the letter I have quoted, in my opin- 
ion, below $50,000,000; but we have tried the 
Democratic party; we have weighed them in the 
balance, and found them wanting. We do not 
propose to try them again. We propose to thrust 
out the corrupt, the lavish men, who now control 
the Government, and put in honest men, who will 
retrench in good earnest; not men who will write 
letters recommending retrenchment, but men who 
will take hold and do the work of retrenchment. 
I have placed the expenditures of the Govern- 
ment this year at $95,000,000. 1 know not how 
much will be appropriated, but I know that if the 



8 



Government pays its debts this year, and does 
not leave a deficiency for the next Congress to 
provide for, the expenses will be $100,000,000; but 
I take the basis of expenditure to be $95,000,000. 
Taking it at $95,000,000, without counting the 
sum of $30,000,000 for Cuba, in this bill, or the 
$200,000,000 for the purchase of Cuba, but sim- 
ply taking the regular expenses, the cost of run- 
ning the institution, and the quota of each con- 
gressional district would be $405,982; and the 
State of Michigan, upon **ie present basis of rep- 
resentation, would have to pay $1,623,928, but in 
truth the proportion of the State of Michigan is 
over three millions of 'this enormous expenditure 
for the support of this Government. The State 
of Maine pay*- ' 892, upon the present Ik 
the State of New Hampshire $1,217,846; the I 
State of Vermont, $1,217,846; the State of Mas- j 
sachusetts, $4,465,802; the State of Rhode Island, 
$811,964; the State of Ohio, $8,525,622; the State ! 
of Indiana, $4,465,802; the State of Illinois, 1 
$3,653,838; the State of Iowa, $811,964; and so I 



on. If this revenue was collected by direct taxa 
lion— and 1 wish it were tried for once— my word 
for it, the expenditures of this Govern ment would 
be reduced more than one half before the expira- 
tion of twelve months from this day. It is became 
the people do not see how, and where, and when 
they are taxed, that the expenses of the Federal 
Government have increased so enormously. It 
would create a rebellion in ninety days from 
this time, if you were to send your tax-collect- 
ors around to the different congressional districts, 
to wrench from the pockets of the tax-payers 
$405,000. They would not stand itforaday; but 
because you can cover up these extravagances,, 
because you can borrow money and leave future? 
generations to pay it, these things are p. ■•■■<>, itt .-.(.■ 
the expenditures go on, and God only knows 
where they will end. As I said before, we have 
tried the Democratic party; we have Weighed it in 
the balance; we have found it wanting; and we 
propose, in 1860, to take possession of this Gov- 
ernment, and not have Cuba, either. 



Printed at the Congressional Globe Office. 




